I collaborated with designers, engineers, and product leaders to build a data visualization strategy for financial planning software, ensuring insights were actionable and seamlessly integrated into decision-making workflows.
Every role teaches us something different, and sometimes it takes time to fully realize the impact of a long-term role
By putting all the classic, lightweight UX tools to use: user journies, wireframes, written documentation, anything – everything – to help escape the daily practicality grind and focus on what really matters. But also, by not being afraid to play around with changing stuff that nobody else has had time yet to question.
Syntellis Performance Solutions developed Axiom, a financial planning tool for hospitals, universities, and financial institutions. My role focused on integrating data visualization into the product experience, ensuring that complex financial insights were both accessible and actionable.
Syntellis Performance Solutions developed Axiom, a financial planning tool for hospitals, universities, and financial institutions. My role focused on integrating data visualization into the product experience, ensuring that complex financial insights were both accessible and actionable.
By treating everyone as an ally to the cause, no matter their skill level, contribution, or behavior. The times I remembered this, our work together made great things possible. The times it slipped my mind, everything got harder.
Syntellis Performance Solutions developed Axiom, a financial planning tool for hospitals, universities, and financial institutions. My role focused on integrating data visualization into the product experience, ensuring that complex financial insights were both accessible and actionable.
Building on this foundation, I developed a structured approach that balanced short-term execution with long-term strategy in data visualization.
I refined design systems, improved workflow efficiency, and led strategic initiatives that positioned visualization as a core component of Axiom. This work involved strengthening collaboration between UX, engineering, and product leadership, advocating for a user-centered approach to data, and shaping a framework that aligned visualization with financial decision-making across the platform.
This project is protected under an NDA, which prevents me from sharing specific visual examples or discussing project details. Instead, this case study presents a high-level overview of the challenges I worked on, my design philosophy, and the approaches I used. Representative visuals are included to illustrate key concepts without disclosing proprietary work.
Syntellis' Axiom product was designed to help organizations make smarter financial decisions by combining planning, budgeting, and forecasting with clear, data-driven insights. The platform brought together financial history, industry benchmarks, and predictive tools to support hospitals, universities, and financial institutions in planning for the future with confidence.
I played a key role in expanding the role of data visualization, integrating it more deeply into the product experience to enhance usability and decision-making.
In collaboration with the UX team, I helped evolve data visualization into an interactive, embedded experience that aligned with users' workflows, making insights more actionable and immediate.
As a senior visual designer, I worked across multiple disciplines, contributing to UX, engineering, product design, and data visualization. This fluid role gave me broad exposure to cross-vertical product strategy and production, allowing me to see the bigger picture beyond individual design tasks.
My position on the UX team provided a cross-sectional view of the product design process and an opportunity to shape the evolution of data visualization within the organization.
My approach to helping users engage with data at a large product organization relied on three major stages of contribution:
One of the key considerations in my product design work is balancing short-term effectiveness with long-term strategy. Prioritizing one too much over the other can impede progress. Meeting teams where they are while laying the groundwork for the future is crucial.
When I joined the team, Syntellis had a well-established approach to producing data visualization products. As the team continued refining its strategy, I identified opportunities to enhance the impact and scalability of visualization components, ensuring they aligned closely with the product mission of empowering data-driven decisions. A key part of this effort involved developing documentation and design standards that provided consistency across teams, making visualization work more efficient and strategically aligned with long-term goals.
To address immediate needs, I developed a data-specific design system that ensured consistency and structure across tools, methods, and platforms. I also led wireframing sessions to help teams quickly define user goals and evaluate solutions, replacing a process that previously depended on external vendors. By embedding directly with product teams, I gained a deeper understanding of their needs and streamlined the visualization process, reducing inefficiencies and accelerating production.
At the same time, I worked to ensure our long-term strategy evolved alongside immediate improvements. My ability to ideate rapidly and integrate UI best practices allowed teams to experiment with new concepts in a low-risk way, fostering innovation without excessive investment. Through hands-on collaboration, I documented best practices and established repeatable processes that aligned visualization efforts with the broader product vision. By balancing both short-term execution and long-term strategy, I helped shape a more scalable and effective approach to data visualization within Axiom.
A key part of my role at Syntellis was bridging the gap between UX, product strategy, and engineering. My background in data visualization studios gave me the ability to communicate effectively between designers and engineers, ensuring that interaction goals were clearly expressed across disciplines.
At times, I collaborated at the code level—not as a developer, but as a design partner working closely with engineers to better understand technical constraints. This hands-on involvement deepened my knowledge of the development technology, allowing me to act as a resource for product design teams when assessing feasibility. Bridging design and engineering, I facilitated alignment and helped teams navigate technical challenges more effectively.
I also worked closely with the head of engineering to develop a strategy for improving collaboration between design and development. I ensured that data visualization discussions balanced strategic impact with execution and production methods. By fostering this alignment, I helped create a more seamless and effective integration of data visualization within the product experience.
My early work with product teams laid the foundation for a true partnership between design and product leadership at Syntellis. Through various projects, I established that creative visual design and data visualization go beyond aesthetics—they play a vital role in empowering users to make informed decisions. Some of the most rewarding moments of my tenure came from collaborative sessions with product leaders, where we explored how users could better engage with data to drive financial health within their organizations.
As a strategic contributor, I sought opportunities to shape the conversation around data. I used brainstorming tools to develop conceptual frameworks and define key terminology. These materials became valuable resources for product leaders, helping them refine product roadmaps and articulate the impact of our work to the larger organization. This collaboration evolved into a shift in how we approached data visualization—not just as a static dashboard feature but as a structured narrative that allowed users to interact with data in meaningful ways.
I introduced a structured, interactive data visualization framework that made insights more actionable within workflows. This approach ensured that data visualization was not just a static component but an interactive tool that aligned with broader product goals. My broad exposure across different product teams allowed me to identify recurring interaction patterns that might have been overlooked by designers working in isolated verticals. I distilled these patterns into a documented library, ensuring that designers, engineers, and product leaders could leverage them to create more cohesive, user-driven experiences.
Like many designers who have worked to define the value of their contributions in the context of highly technical environments, I've often felt pressure to position myself as a tireless champion of evidence-based design choices. While the value of strategic reasoning alongside creativity is unquestionably important, I don't think I'd realized how far I'd come to instinctively rule out aesthetic concepts that couldn't be readily justified in terms of user or business goals.
This project was an inspiration to remember how important visual design is as a catalyst for curiosity, a tool to build enthusiasm even when the technical and strategic foundations of a comprehensive user experience have yet to be fully assembled.
To ensure that designers maintain active, vibrant roles in shaping user experiences, I believe it's essential not to lose sight of design's role as a freeform, generative, and playful process—a kind of magic that enables us to imagine what doesn't yet exist.
Reflecting on my experience reminds me of the unique responsibility designers have to foster creative exploration within structured environments. My work with the SharePoint team underscored the importance of creating collaborative spaces where stakeholders feel encouraged to reflect, imagine, and explore possibilities.
If you're looking for an experienced visual designer with a focus on data visualization, let's get in touch!
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